Freediving Thailand - Any recommendations?

[Lofota]

Hi all,

I'm very new to this forum, so I hope, I picked the right section for this post:

My boyfriend and I were thinking about a 2-week freediving holiday in Thailand in December.
We don't really want a liveaboard, but more have a nice hotel on a nice island with lots of underwater-scenery to explore around (preferably not overcrowded with tourists). If there's the possibility to do some deep diving (25-35 m) nearby that would be a bonus.
I found out there are a few free diving bases scattered around Thailand, quite a few on Koh Tao, as we don't want to obtain a new certificate while on Thailand, we're not so fussed about courses, but as we have never been to Thailand, I thought it might be good to have a base who knows about freediving and can give some tips, weights and maybe some coaching for a few days, but the main focus of the holidays should be the exploration of the beautiful underwater scenery.

Here are a few bases, I found:
Apnea Total - Koh Tao's Freediving Experience
AIDA and SSI Freediving / Apnea Courses on Koh Tao Thailand | Alvaro Diving Courses Koh Tao
Home | Freediving Thailand | Andaman Apnea
Freediving / Apnea in Koh Lanta
We Freedive Thailand - We Freedive Thailand - Quality Freediving Education
Freediving in Thailand (Koh tao)
AIDA and SSI Freediving / Apnea Courses on Koh Tao Thailand | Alvaro Diving Courses Koh Tao


So does anyone of you have any freediving experience in Thailand and can give some feedback?

Cheers,

Nicole

 

[Youbuur]

Hey,

I returned not so long ago from Thailand. I Went to koh tao and did a freediving course with apnea total. I really enjoyed it and also I really miss it. I've heard that blue immersion is also very good. I can tell you this the water in koh Tao didn't have the best visibility, it was like 10-15 meter not more. This was in march. Maybe it's better now. Your dept request is not a problem cuz you go out with boat with them. I didn't find any dept on my own so freediving myself on koh Tao wasn't an alternative sadly.

Ask away if there is any more you'd like me to describe.

Best regards Freediver Youbuur
Check out my YouTube freediving channel
[ame]http://youtu.be/BWRiVNE0spw[/ame]

 

[Lofota]

Hey Youbuur,

Thanks for the reply!
Hm, so from what I've heard (also did a bit of reading in a German scuba diving forum) Thailand is not really the place if you don't want to rely on boats, sadly.

Did you also do any nice freedives off the coast at all (not deep, just nice)? I'm not sure if I want to take a boat every day. From my experience it usually is a bit stressful on boats and the schedule is quite tight.

I was thinking maybe a place like the Philippines would be better after all then, there I also did some reading and found this here:
Freediving in Cebu Philippines | Pure Apnea Courses | Private Freedive Training | Deep freediving destination in Asia for serious freedivers <--- they seem to have a pretty decent reef right outside their base, not sure if that will get boring after a while though (we don't only want to do depth training).

So if it wasn't for the time of our holidays being December / January, we would probably pick the Mediterranean again, but during winter it's a bit too cold and unreliable there, so I guess we'll need to go far.